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Julye 09 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine Explosives school helps soldiers overseas
About two pounds of potassium-based homemade explosive is detonated on the TA-49 observation pad as part of the Lab’s “homemade explosives school” held recently for members of the U.S. military. Photo by Kevin N. Roark Scientists at the Laboratory are using their expertise in a variety of disciplines to prepare U.S. military personnel to deal with homemade explosives that they might encounter while deployed in Afghanistan. Personnel selected by the military attend an intensive three-day course at the Laboratory to learn how to detect, identify, and characterize a wide variety of improvised explosive compounds and their ingredients from an “Afghanistancentric” point of view. “We’re teaching these young men and women what to look for in order to help them separate the good guys from the bad guys,” said Becky Olinger of High Explosive Science and Technology (DE-1). “Our troops are seeing a lot of improvised explosives in Afghanistan, so we’re teaching them how to use all their senses, coupled with state-of-the-art technology, to enhance their awareness of colors, textures, and odors typical of explosive materials or ingredients, as well as how to recognize human indicators common to bad guys who have handled these materials or ingredients.” One of the key tools used overseas is the LANL-developed Emergency Response Explosives Field Guide (EREFG) that catalogs the spectrum of energetic materials and compounds and has been in use by the Department of Defense and other customers for years. In addition to classroom and laboratory settings, participants get hands-on training in the field, where they witness a variety of improvised and conventional explosive detonations and deal with realistic mock scenarios set up by the Lab’s Hazardous Devices Team. The training started this year with a pilot course for senior military officers and has progressed into its second session, recently completed with 32 Marine infantry and Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and reconnaissance personnel across the ranks, from private to captain. The program is funded by the Department of Defense and is scheduled to provide six more training sessions. Classes will be held through the end of 2010. The program eventually may expand to offer an advanced training level designed for EOD specialists. In addition to Moore and Olinger, the course is organized and taught by David Chavez of DE-1, Jeff Golden of Nuclear Counterterrorism Response, Scott Kinkead and Stephanie Hagelberg of Focused Experiments, Brad Lounsbury, Bob Clark, Chris Ory, and Chris Rittner of the Hazardous Devices Team, Lloyd Davis and Bryce Tappan of Explosive Applications and Special Projects, Jackie Veauthier of Inorganic Isotope and Actinide Chemistry, and Margo Greenfield, a Shock and Detonation Physics post-doc. “We learn a lot from many of the students, too,” said Olinger. “The students provide valuable information to assist with our developing scenarios for future training and in helping us add even more valuable information to the EREFG database.” --Kevin N. Roark Other Headlines
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